The Club

Founded by the British Army Garison who were based in Fort Camden. The club held its first AGM on Tuesday 13th September 1898 in Camden, and although the club has had various homes around the village of Crosshaven including Church Bay Road, Graball Bay and more famously “the Bog”, Crosshaven AFC finally returned to Camden in the 1980’s, where the club has remained ever since.

In the early history of Crosshaven AFC the club led a very nomadic life. One former member, Donie Kelly, when pushed could recall no fewer than 23 pitches where Crosshaven played games.

The Bog with its extraordinary slopes was home to the club from 1959 to 1981 before the visionaries involved in the club at the time (some of whom are here today) decided the time was right to find a permanent home. That home was Camden Road, less than a stone’s throw from where the club was originally founded.

With interest rates at a whopping 18% at the time & the 5 acres costing £40000. How were the club going to pay for it? An ingenious plan was hatched that was to encompass the entire community and from that plan Crosshaven Carnival Week was born. Crosshaven was always a favourite holiday destination long before people headed abroad. It was also a favourite for day trippers. The carnival required huge dedication& organistion. Titles up for grabs included Carnival Queen, Lord Mayor & 7 a-side Inter pub, 5km road races, Pram races & even mud races! The Carnival proved so popular that in the first year alone the club cleared £10k profit.

The monies generated from the Carnivals also enabled the levelling of a second pitch on the 5 acre site in Camden & the quick payment of the land & the success of the Carnival enabled the club to build it’s own clubhouse. Finished in 1992 the club now had its own four dressing room facility, with kitchen, showers, meeting room, referees room, toilets. The clubhouse cost £30k but was built with money to spare thanks to some ingenious fundraising, a National Lottery grant & support from nearby businesses. Members of the club with different trades spent their Summer labouring, painting, plastering to finish the project. Nobody charged for their time, a trait that was to become synonymous with Crosshaven AFC.

In 1998 the club celebrated it’s centenary with the highlight being the Dinner held at a nearby Hotel. The President of the FAI Pat Quigley was Guest of Honour along with hosts of dignitarys & over 250 players/members.

To celebrate the first 100 years the club built a 7 a-side all weather training area at a cost of £70k. This was ready for the 1999 season. That same Summer one of our former Schoolboys Greg O’Halloran played on the Irish team that finished 3rd in the European U19 Championships.

Over the coming years projects like this became the order of the day as club transformed the look of the grounds.

In 2002 the main pitch was levelled and has for the past 5 season become the home of the Munster Senior League’s O’Connell Cup Final.

In 2005 we installed a defibrillator in the clubhouse following the passing of one of players from SADs. 20 members are trained on the use of this now vital piece of equipment.

In 2006 Railings were erected around our top pitch. Again the club used people within the club with the necessary background to do this project voluntarily.

In 2007 the club also launched its own website www.crosshavenafc.com – on this site members can post pictures to their gallery, purchase merchandise, pay their membership with Laser, play the club lotto, check fixtures, results & get the latest news. The best thing about it is that it was designed & is maintained by members at no cost. The website domain name costs around €80 per year yet revenue generated annually through the site is just under €5000.

In 2008 planning was granted for a major redevelopment of the clubhouse.

In 2009 Dugouts were designed & installed on the top pitch.

This year alone we have built a storage garage for our equipment & lawnmowers next to the clubhouse.

The all weather pitch & clubhouse were given a full facelift.

A 20m fence was erected all along the side of one pitch.

All these projects were fully paid for by the club & completed thanks to voluntary effort of members.

Moving forward the club has already secured planning permission for a clubhouse extension & has planning permission lodged for an extension to our all weather.

Currently Crosshaven AFC has 10 Schoolboy Teams – 3 Schoolgirl Teams, a Ladies team, a Senior Mens Team & a Junior Mens Team. The Club boasts two playing pitches, an all-weather training area and a four dressing room clubhouse.

Crosshaven AFC have historically been one of the most successful teams in Cork soccer, winning nearly every trophy available in the Munster Senior League & AUL.

Crosshaven has also produced countless players who have gone on to represent Ireland at different levels, played League Of Ireland, for Munster & Cork, but more importantly we have produced countless players who play for the love of the game!

To be fair to Lakewood they offered to travel to Camden late Monday evening and could only bring a small amount of players, and at this age no coach wants players watching on the sidelines so the boys were gathered together and were asked the dreaded questions:

1) Daineal cannot play in goal as he busted his hand so who will play in goal?2) Lakewood are down players so we need two players from each team to play with them who will play?

After complete mayhem from the lads the coaches decided who was doing was and fairly.

However the news of the night relates to Diarmuid Salah, who was put on the Lakewood team at the start and ordered not to score (seriously). Cue half time and all the boys complaining Diarmuid scored 3 goals against Crosshaven just for fun.

All in all a good night's work, team A losing the first game 3-2 and winning 3-0 in the second game with Jimmy scoring a beaut and then Daineal scoring in the bottom corner before the Mighty Fionn scoring in the top corner to claim victory. What can we say about Fionn if we could bottle his energy and heart we'd be made. Special mention to Olly, Chris, and Peter and although they didn't score they set the boys up. Chris to be fair offered to play for Lakewood and put in a poor performance for them (well done Chris), but this reporter wonders why Fergus played a blinder for them on his turn. Pat and Eileen something is wrong there this is your fault what's going on how could he play so well for them and not for us? Peter was brilliant with his new Roberto Carlos outlook and his Dad was very proud when he played crap for them when he had to switch. Nice one Son. Olly was fab and to be fair he played in goal for too long as the coach forgot the time sorry Olly! Jimmy also found a new positon but more about that in the player thoughts below.

Team B were losing against lakewood thanks to Diarmuid and came in at half time 3-1 down but he switched sides and scored a few in the second half and then Ozzy got two to make it 5-5 at full time. Lakewood asked for Diarmiud for the second game but were told to shove it by Pat and he gave them Hughie who then scored against us! The boys picked it up and won comfortably in the end , Hughie came back to the dark side and scored a hat trick and Diarmiud Ozzy an Fionan scoring goals as well. Daniel is a relavation, the boy is a midfielder who covers the defence naturally, a rare quality so watch this space. William played two halves for Lakewood and was excellent both for them and us and the coaches think that Central Defence Midfielder is going to be his position. Theo came up and played for us again from the under 8's and we love to see him, but the coaches noted how much he hated playing for Lakewood and how well he played then for us. Ted and Leona have him trained well!

All in all a good night out, thanks to the parents for coming and here's to special bunch of lads! And we wish Sam well and hope he's back for the game next Monday night, we missed you Sam and Eldin too! ... See MoreSee Less

Crosshaven U12s made it 10 league wins in a row away at Greenwood on Wednesday evening after a match that proved to be one of their best fighting performances of the season.

Oisin made a number of rapid saves in succession and from close quarters as Greenwood tore into the Crosser defence of Rory, Billy and Eamon. Lucky to be on terms, Rhys opened our scoring account with one of his usual assured finishes. In an evenly fought first half, the crossbar and the post denied Fionn and Rhys, after chances set up by Shay and Thomas. Greenwood used their numerical advantage in midfield well and had Leo and Fionn at full tilt to break up their play.

Going in at half time level, playing into the strong sunshine, it was always going to be a tough second half in terms of effort required. Sure enough Greenwood went ahead 2-1 after some uncharacterically poor teamwork by Crosser, who were tiring in the heat.

Rian came on in goal leaving Oisin outfield in midfield, while Fionn moved up front in place of Thomas. Ashton replaced Billy in defence and kept up his high standards.

Fionn drew Crosser level and then back in front after a dribble and finish Messi would be proud of. The game was still in the mix though and Rory and his defence remained under pressure before a rasping shot to the to corner drew Greenwood level.

This Crosshaven team does not do draws though and were now full of renewed energy making waves of attack. Shay was perfectly placed to score an injury time winner with a powerful finish. It was the last kick of the ball and the winning run remains intact. 30 points after 11 games has the squad in pole position for silverware. It would be no less than they deserved after a stunning match. ... See MoreSee Less

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Membership

Membership for the 2017/2018 season is now due. Membership for the club is important to purchase equipment, pay insurance, pay affiliation fees, lighting, heating etc etc. Payment this year is via the online platform only. Click on the link below for full details.